CLIFTON PARK -- A revised environmental management plan for a 16-acre Wood Road parcel has helped a long-stalled development project get its approval, much to the chagrin of local environmentalists who say the endangered Karner blue butterfly population will be irreparably damaged by the development. The environmentalists have laid the groundwork for a lawsuit to stop the project.

The town's Planning Board approved the DCG Light Industrial Phase II project plan Sept. 25. The new plan requires DCG Development Co., which owns the site, to restore the federally endangered butterfly population if no Karner blues are seen on the site within five years.

Environmentalists say the plan does not go nearly far enough. The Sierra Club Hudson-Mohawk Group and Save the Pine Bush, along with a number of concerned citizens, filed paperwork announcing their intent to sue, saying the now-approved proposal would seriously harm the butterfly habitat and population.

"We believe many of the concerns that we and other advocates of the Karner blue presented to the board during two public hearings were dismissed and not heeded," said Pete Sheehan, chairman of the Sierra Club Mohawk Hudson. "Our members don't want the beautiful and fragile Karner blue to be extirpated by the actions or inactions of those who want to profit by severely altering its habitat for an industrial park."

With the approval in hand, DCG plans to begin developing a parcel of land on the west side of Wood Road. Their plans have been stalled for years due to a 20-year-old contractual disagreement between DCG and local environmentalists over the threat that development poses to the endangered Karner blue butterfly.

The plans approved last month call for a 1.8-acre area inside the parcel to be left untouched to leave a food source for the butterflies. Save the Pine Bush secretary Lynne Jackson called that provision "inadequate."

DCG Vice President Donald MacElroy was glad to finally get the approval for the site, the firm's second. "We're obviously happy," he said. "We tried to address all the board's concerns. We want to get the site ready. We hope to be able to get started and bring jobs to Clifton Park."

Planning Board Chairman Rocco Ferraro said the approved plan was revised based on comments from the public.

"Based on the input received and the revisions made to the management restoration plan ... it is an appropriate solution to manage and restore the Karner blue to the habitat located on the parcel," he said.

Clifton Park environmentalist William Engleman criticized the plan and said it has no basis in science.

"They have not obtained any scientific validation that this plan will preserve the Karner blue except from the applicant's own so-called experts," he said.

Engleman criticized the board for not obtaining an opinion on the plan from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

"The approval to develop this site by the Planning Board demonstrates that the town of Clifton Park has no interest in preserving unique, unusual endangered species such as the Karner blue butterfly," Jackson said.